'As Lawyers, We Would Not Accept The Type of Failure We Have In Diversity In Anything Else We Do'

Law firms and in-house groups have failed to diversify their workforce, despite strong efforts and best intentions

“Once again, a case of your feet in my Nikes / If a crowd is in my realm, I’m saying — mic please.” Phife Dawg

In the last two weeks, Bloomberg BNA has hosted Big Law Business Diversity and Inclusion Conferences in New York City and San Francisco. As Bloomberg notes:

In 1999, Chief Legal Officers of about 500 major corporations signed a pledge to make immediate and meaningful improvement to diversify their workforce, yet some 16 years later, law firms and in-house groups have failed to live up to their words, despite strong efforts and best intentions:

Although blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans constitute about a third of the U.S. population and a fifth of law school graduates, they make up fewer than 7 percent of law firm partners and 9 percent of general counsels of large corporations.

As Bloomberg further points out:

It is common knowledge that the legal community remains one of the least diverse. Large law firms have made strides towards hiring diverse candidates, but work is still to be done in retaining top talent. Retaining and developing those individuals and leveraging the diverse perspectives they convey is where the true challenge lies.

In the last week or so, Bloomberg has successfully connected some of the most respected in-house and law firm leaders, as well as human resource personnel, to explore strategies for overcoming diversity and inclusion challenges at law firms and corporate legal groups.

For those who were unable to attend either of these conferences, Bloomberg BNA has made available some great videos from the NYC Diversity and Inclusion Event.

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One of the most popular panels was titled, “Inclusion Strategies: Retain and Promote,” and featured Ricardo Anzaldua, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, MetLife. At one point during the presentation, Anzaldua received a round of applause from the audience after delivering an impassioned speech about the lack of progress in diversity: “As lawyers, we would not accept this kind of failure in anything else we do.”

You can view the presentation “Inclusion Strategies: Retain and Promote” right here.

To view some of the other popular panels, visit the Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business site. To follow this diversity initiative on Twitter, use #BigLawDiversity.


Renwei Chung is a 2L at Southern Methodist University School of Law. He has an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Golden Rule: How Income Inequality Will Ruin America (affiliate link). He has been randomly blogging about anything and everything at Live Your Truth since 2008. He was born in California, raised in Michigan, and lives in Texas. He has a yellow lab named Izza and enjoys old-school hip hop, the NBA and stand up paddleboarding (SUP). He is really interested in startups, entrepreneurship, and innovative technologies. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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